The Tampa Bay Rays front office had an exceptionally busy Sunday. The Rays made their first acquisition ahead of the July 31st trade deadline, acquiring utility player Erik Sogard from the Toronto Blue Jays. The Rays also sent a pair of players, Hunter Wood and Christian Arroyo, to Cleveland in order to clear roster space for the current and future acquisitions.
Eric Sogard acquired from Toronto for two players to be named later
Sogard, being one of the few utility options on the trade market, attracted the interest of a number of teams, including the Cubs and Giants. But at the end of the day, Sogard was acquired during the third inning of the series finale against the Blue Jays and will be added to the 25-man roster before the Rays upcoming series in Boston.
Sogard said he wished he could have worn two uniforms in one day.
It was definitely an interesting scenario. It was like I was kind of sitting there thinking, ‘What team should I be cheering for?’ in a way. But these last two games were absolutely wild games, and to come out even, both with seven-run-deficit comebacks is very impressive.
…It would have been very awesome. It would have been neat even starting the game with the Blue Jays and then being able to go over and finish it with them.
— Erik Sogard
Since Brandon Lowe and Yandy Diaz are on the Injured List, with no set date for them to begin their rehab assignments, Tampa Bay acquired a veteran with a solid reputation, good, contact skills, and decent defensive ability.
He’ll play some second, Joey (Wendle) will move over to short at times, but it’s going to be a lot of mixing and matching. It’s a smart decision from the front office recognizing that we don’t know where Brandon Lowe is — not being critical of Brandon — this is taking longer than we anticipated. We’ve got to cover ourselves. Then with Yandy, similarly we’re not getting the quickest healing news on him either. So it covers us on the infield.
— Kevin Cash
Sogard is in the midst of a career batting .300 BA/.363 OBP/.477 SLG/.840 OPS to go with 10 home runs, two triples, 17 doubles, 30 RBI, and six stolen bases in 73 games. He has struck out just 47 times in 323 plate appearances this season and is making contact on 89.6% of his swings — raking fifth in the majors among players with at least 300 plate appearances. Defensively, however, his -5 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) paint him as a below-average second baseman.
As Neil Solondz (Rays Radio) writes, Sogard is a free agent after the season, so it’s unlikely the players to be named will be major prospects.
Hunter Wood dealt and Christian Arroyo dealt to Cleveland for minor league OF Ruben Cardenas and international slot money
With Sogard joining the Rays, space on the 40-man roster needed to be cleared. Trading Wood and Arroyo did just that while opening up another spot. As it stands, the Rays have a roster crunch coming, both in 2019 and 2020. Anthony Banda is close to activation from the 60-day IL, while Tyler Glasnow will come off the IL sooner or later. Meanwhile, the recently-acquired Peter Fairbanks might impact the team at some point this season as well. Considering that flux of pitching, that’s likely why Wood may have been the choice. Then again, why Austin Pruitt is still on the 40-man roster is a mystery to me.
I digress.
Hampered by injuries, Arroyo is currently on the 60-day and likely developed as much as he was going to. With this in mind, Arroyo ultimately fell behind Mike Brosseau, Daniel Robertson, Matt Duffy, and Diaz, making him more expendable.
In exchange, the Rays get Cardenas, who Baseball America wrote about (below) as well as international slot money:
Cardenas entered last year a promising draft prospect out of Cal State Fullerton, but a disappointing season and concerns over a previous back injury dropped him to the 16th round in 2018. His first full season as a professional was off to a strong start this year at low Class A Lake County, ranking among the Midwest League leaders in slugging percentage (.475, third), OPS (.818, fifth), triples (six, tied for fifth), RBIs (54, fifth), extra-base hits (35, third) and total bases (152, tied for third). Cardenas is a physical, righthanded hitter whose above-average raw power is his calling card. When right, he hits the ball hard consistently, but at times he sells out for power and gets caught tinkering with his swing too much. Cardenas is a fringe-average runner with a slow motor who is strictly a corner outfielder, so he’s going to have to mash.
With the Rays being connected to hurlers like Edwin Diaz and Noah Syndergaard, expect Erik Neander to be busy the next few days as they attempt to bolster the roster ahead of a postseason run.